Tag Archives: Luke Bryan

CLICK THE PHOTO ABOVE for a photo gallery of performances from the 48th Annual Academy of Country Music Awards last year. Here, Miranda Lambert wins single of the year during the Las Vegas show last April. (Photo: Tennessean file by Larry McCormack)

Lambert and McGraw each landed seven nominations, a particular feat for Lambert: It has been more than two years since she released her last album “Four the Record.” McGraw released his “Two Lanes of Freedom” in February 2013.

Lambert is nominated for entertainer of the year, single record and song of the year, video of the year, and female vocalist of the year, and she has two mentions in the vocal event of the year category.

McGraw is nominated for album of the year, single record of the year, video of the year and vocal event of the year.

Keith Urban, who will headline Nashville’s Bridgestone Arena Saturday night, had six nominations including male vocalist and two mentions in the vocal event of the year category.

CLICK THE PHOTO ABOVE for a gallery of Nashville-connected artists who performed in the 55th Grammy Awards in 2013. Here, Taylor Swift performs on stage during the show in Los Angeles. (Photo by John Shearer/Invision/AP)

Which means the city’s musicians have only three slots in the four all-genre categories: Taylor Swift for best album, and Kacey Musgraves and new resident Ed Sheeran for top new artist. And some of Music City’s commercial blockbusters (Luke Bryan, Florida Georgia Line) and critically hailed works (such as Jason Isbell’s “Southeastern” album in Americana and Caitlyn Rose’s “The Stand-In” in country and pop) received no nominations, just like our symphony and our other classical and jazz artists.

But if this is a down year, then things are looking up.

Tonight’s 56th annual Grammy Awards will offer plenty of showcases for Music City performers both contemporary and vintage. Swift will play a prominent role, performing onstage at Staples Center and competing in the races for best album, best country album, country song and country duo or group performance (with “Highway Don’t Care” conspirators Tim McGraw and Keith Urban). Her fellow country crossover superstar Urban will perform with guitarist Gary Clark Jr., and young guitar-slinger Hunter Hayes will perform his new, emotion-drenched single, “Invisible,” during the show.

Luke Bryan’s concert tonight in Lexington, Ky., has been rescheduled following stage damage that occurred after Thursday night’s concert in Columbus, Ohio.

The accident happened while the stage was being torn down and loaded so it could be transported to Lexington. There were no fans in the building at the time. The singer’s team will repair the production elements in time for Bryan to play Saturday night’s concert at Knoxville’s Thompson-Boling Arena.

The show at Lexington’s Rupp Arena has been rescheduled for Feb. 21.

Thursday night was the first night of Bryan’s “That’s My Kind of Night” tour that will include three stadium dates before it wraps next fall.

Nearly a year after launching his first arena tour, Bryan announced plans to headline stadiums.

During a press conference from Bridgestone Arena Tuesday morning, the “Drink a Beer” singer revealed that he would play three headlining stadium shows this summer on his “That’s My Kind of Night Tour.”

“I guess I’ve dreamed about this for years,” Bryan said of headlining stadiums. “But dreaming about it and it being tangible and picking the right time in your heart to go do it … I had some wise people tell me when I moved to Nashville to reach for the stars. That’s when I started dreaming about stadiums.”

Bryan will tackle Heinz Field in Pittsburgh on June 21, Lincoln Financial Field in Philadelphia on Aug. 15 and Soldier Field in Chicago on Aug. 31.

“Every NFL Stadium is fair game,” he said. “I would never rule out anything.”

The That’s My Kind of Night Tour kicks off Thursday in Columbus, Ohio, and runs through October. Bryan sold out every show of his Dirt Road Diaries Tour in 2013 — 1.3 million tickets — and will kick off his That’s My Kind of Night Tour knowing that the entire 19-show first leg of the tour is already sold out.

On the second leg of the tour, he’s scheduled to play several venues two nights in a row, allowing him to reach more fans in towns including Washington, D.C., St. Louis, Cleveland, Cincinnati and Indianapolis.

It’s important to Bryan to keep tickets affordable. Seats start at $25.

“Ticket price in this business is the most important thing to me,” Bryan said. “I talked to (my promoter) and said, ‘Let’s price this thing so people can bring their family.’ We feel like if they’ve been gouged with the ticket price off the bat, they’ve started a negative experience before they’ve even got to the venue. It pains me when you see tickets going online and guys standing outside (reselling tickets for a higher price). That’s tough.”

2013 was a banner year for the Georgia native and father of two. On top of his sold out arena tour, Bryan won his first entertainer of the year trophy at the Academy of Country Music Awards, landed a three-week No. 1 song with the title track and lead single from his new album “Crash My Party,” and watched “Crash My Party” sell more than a million copies the first six weeks it was on the market.

“From the time I was playing bars in college to the present day, my whole process has been a steady, slow, attainable, goal-oriented climb,” said the singer. “I learn something every day in this business and I try to apply it. When you break it down from where we were last year to now, it’s a pretty rapid ascent. I try and have people around me that keep it real for me. I don’t wake up and stretch in the morning and go, ‘Here’s Luke Bryan, the guy that’s launching his stadium tour this morning.’ I wake up going, ‘Alright, here we go. Let’s get after it and make it fun.”

Fans can purchase tickets for shows in several cities on the second leg of the tour starting Jan. 24 at Live Nation’s Country Megaticket at www.megaticket.com.

AUSTIN, Texas (AP) - Clear Channel Media and Entertainment got such an overwhelming response to country music performers during the iHeartRadio Music Festivals, they've decided to start one geared toward country fans.

Clear Channel is giving listeners across its more than 120 country stations a chance to win their way to Austin when a six-week promotion kicks off next week.

Other artists scheduled to perform include Hunter Hayes and Jake Owen with more to be announced later. Fans who can't attend can watch the festival via stream on the websites of Clear Channel and its stations.

Tyler Hubbard and Brian Kelley of country duo Florida Georgia Line at The Factory in Franklin, Tenn., on Wednesday Oct. 9, 2013. (photo: Karen Kraft/The Tennessean)

Florida Georgia Line’s sweeping success and free reign at country radio was one of the biggest stories in music in 2013. One week into the New Year, the duo comprised of Brian Kelley and Tyler Hubbard is making entertainment news once again.

This week, with 6.6 million downloads sold, Soundscan named the duo’s debut single “Cruise” the best-selling digital country single in history.

In addition, Florida Georgia Line’s current radio single, “Stay,” just logged its third week at No. 1, making it the duo’s fourth consecutive multi-week No. 1 song.

“This Is How We Roll,” featuring Luke Bryan will be Florida Georgia Line’s next single, and will be released after “Stay” is finished at country radio. The song is from the deluxe edition of “Here’s to the Good Times … This is How We Roll,” which was released in late 2013.

Florida Georgia Line will join Jason Aldean on his Night Train Tour later this month.

Luke Bryan and wife Caroline on the red carpet at the 61st annual BMI Awards show November 5, 2013 in Nashville, Tenn. Click the picture above to see photos of Bryan backstage on his Dirt Road Diaries Tour. (photo: Steven S. Harman/The Tennessean)

Country music fans know that Luke Bryan likes to shake it on stage, but the “Drink a Beer” singer told “Good Housekeeping” that at home, he’s more of a foot rub kind of guy.

Bryan gave the magazine some insight into the wedded bliss he shares with wife Caroline Boyer Bryan.
“It was love at first sight with Caroline — those blue eyes of hers,” he explained. “I knew that, no matter what, I was going to make my way over to her.”

The couple was married in 2006 and since then have had two little boys, Bo, 5, and Tate, 3. Bryan said that we he’s home from touring, he tries to really be at home, and that includes snuggle time with his sons.

“We love to let our boys climb in bed with us at night, and we all watch TV,” he said.

Bryan said other ways the couple keep their relationship strong include avoiding “big throw down fights” by talking disagreements through immediately “instead of letting it snowball,” spending together time over morning coffee and enjoying “little nights out together.”

By mid-afternoon on New Year’s Eve, celebrities with Nashville ties had already flooded Twitter with well wishes for the New Year, advice for a safe and happy New Year’s Eve and much thanks to friends and fans for a successful 2013.

Here’s what some had to say:

Actress Clare Bowen (‏@clarembee): “Responsible drinking is important for this evening. Be safe, try not to fall down, and if you must throw up, aim for someone you don’t like.”

While Charles Esten plays a country singer on television, there’s no acting that goes on when Craig Campbell takes the stage. Campbell, who performed “God Bless America” at the Music City Bowl on Monday, had one of the longest-running songs in chart history earlier this year when his single “Outta My Head” stayed on the country radio airplay charts for 54 weeks.

Campbell’s new single “Keep Them Kisses Comin’” is now at country radio and he said that radio stations seem more eager than ever to embrace his music. It is his fastest climbing single to date.

“I have yet to put out a song that tells this side of me,” Campbell said, following rehearsal at LP Field. “It’s a love song. When I first heard it, I thought about me and my wife. One of our favorite things to do is just chill out on the couch with some wine. It’s also one of those songs where you could listen to it and think about the early stages of dating. It’s a sexy song. I wanted people to know that I’m sexy, too. I can’t let Luke Bryan and Jake Owen have all the sexy, I’ve got to have some of it, too.”

In addition to “Keep Them Kisses Comin,’” fans also can hear Campbell’s voice on a country cover of Lorde’s hit “Royals.” The Georgia native admits he was initially unsure, but recorded the song at the urging of local radio personality Bobby Bones.

“I had never heard it, but I downloaded it,” he recalled. “I was like, ‘It’s a girl song? How can I do that?’ But I said, ‘Hey, I’ll give it a shot.’”

Several radio stations started playing Campbell’s cover and his team made it available on iTunes. Proceeds benefit The Humane Society.

“Sometimes I don’t like it when people remake pop songs,” he said. “But I feel like as soon as I sang it, it was no longer a pop song, it was a country song. I do it live at my shows and people love it.”

For better or worse, when it comes to music, 2013 may be remembered as the Year of Miley. Month after month, Nashville native Miley Cyrus tongue-wagged her way into the headlines, and was just revealed to be the most-Googled person of the year.

But, we’ll remember that tons of other talented Nashvillians made waves this year — with tunes instead of twerks. Here are 13 of the hitmakers, pairings, mainstays and undersung favorites that made 2013 yet another banner year for Music City.